World Expo will give Liverpool a chance to prove itself

Jun 30 2008 by Jim Hancock, Liverpool Daily Post

DURING Liverpool Business Week, I experienced 15 bruising rounds with Derek Hatton, and heard a challenge to Merseyside politicians to dig deep for the Shanghai challenge.

Liverpool has done well to be the only UK city outside London to have won a place to exhibit at the World Expo, in our twin city of Shanghai, in 2010. The two great ports have been twinned since 1999, and if you think Liverpool has been all concrete and cranes since, you should go to Shanghai.

The economic development there, and in China as a whole, is on a phenomenal scale.

So the chance for Liverpool to have a platform in front of 70m people is invaluable.

When we reported the news earlier this month, the cost of participating was estimated at £1.5m, but there are indications from the business community that it will need to be a lot more to do a really good job.

We are not talking about people standing around a trade stand handing out leaflets. The event goes on for six months and, in that time, quality networking is required. So we should pay heed to the words of David Wade-Smith at a Downtown Liverpool in Business breakfast meeting last week.

The Chairman of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce and I were discussing the progress of the Liverpool (or Merseyside) City Region. David believes Shanghai is a major test of whether we can get our act together.

He clearly fears that gathering money from local authorities for this project could be a problem. I say local authorities, because Shanghai should involve all the Merseyside region councils, under the Liverpool brand.

David posed the question that irritates us so much but needs to be asked. What would the Manchester City Region do if it was there? "Pull together" was his answer.

Let’s hope, even in these difficult economic times, that Shanghai 2010 can be one of the first major challenges that the new Liverpool City Region will rise to.

The breakfast was one of the many events in Liverpool Business Week that looked to the future. But one returned to the Militant period. Why do we keep analysing those turbulent years when the city’s image was wrecked, or – according to Derek Hatton – a principled fight was fought for a ravaged city?

I did the interview on the basis this may be the last time the former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council talks in detail about that crisis in the 1980s.

He admitted that sending redundancy notices to all the council’s workers, during the battle with the Tory government for more cash, was badly handled. But if anyone thought the intervening years of celebrity and wealth have diminished his passion for the city, they should have been in my place when I voiced criticisms of Militant’s house building programme.

Such passion is absent in these blander political times, which perhaps explains why the flamboyant ex-Militant is such a media favourite.